Matching to Competitive IM Subspecialities in the US Following Canadian Residency

[MedDragon]

Hello,

 

I am looking into the prospect of matching into competitive IM fellowships in the US following a Canadian residency. Unfortunately, after thoroughly reading relevant posts on Premed 101 and SDN, I was still unable to find much information particular to this topic. I understand that for many non-competitive fellowships, they are not difficult for Canadian residents to get at all. But what about competitive IM subspecialities (Cardio/GI/Hem/Onc)? If they are still not difficult, what about T20 institutions? Do we need things like high STEP scores, lots of publications, or coming from a "name-brand" instutiton in Canada? In addition, I heard that residents at top academic programs in the US often have more protected research time in residency, how much disadvantage would we have research-wise?

 

Would appreciate any info from people who have done/heard about someone who has done this. Thanks a lot.

 

[johnnyboy]

Can't directly speak to where CMG/Canadian residency graduates (CRG) are in terms of competitiveness because there are so few of them in US IM subspecialty fellowships. If I were to take a wild guess, most CMG/CRGs are on par with mid-tier university grads with UT/UBC/McGIll maybe a tad higher. Having said that, the visa requirement will work against CMG/CRGs. In terms of factors that are important for application, residency reputation, letters of reference, and research are the most important and STEP scores most often work as cut-offs. Top 20 institutions for GI/cards/HO will be tough for anyone outside of residency graduates from said top 20 institutions and will require something that makes the applicant standout, which will most often be research. 

[bearded frog]

I've definitely heard of Canadian IM/Peds residents going to Stanford, Harvard, Yale, etc for fellowship so it is definitely possible.